Our take: Suicidal detainee put on ICE at jail

The new York County prison work-release facility on Concord Road in Springettsbury Township. (File)

Tiombe Carlos hanged herself in the York County Prison on Oct. 23. It was a sad end to what had to be a difficult life.

According to Families for Freedom, an advocacy group for those held in immigration detention, she had mental health issues. The group, and her family and lawyer, pushed for her release from detention so she could be treated for her mental illness.

Their pleas were denied.

And now, Ms. Carlos, a 34-year-old Antiguan national, is dead.

There had been warning signs. She attempted to kill herself in August, something her advocates didn't learn about until after her successful attempt to end her life. And even then they learned about the attempt from other detainees, not ICE or the prison.

Her death has raised a lot of questions about how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles the detention of those who enter the country illegally and how the York County Prison handles detainees placed in its care.

Ms. Carlos had been in the prison since February 2011, according to Families for Freedom. Why she continued to be detained is unclear. She had entered the country 30 years ago, when she was a child, as a legal permanent resident, the organization reported. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was a teenager. Whether that had anything to do with her immigration status is a mystery. ICE isn't talking.

And that's a huge problem.

Advertisement

ICE hasn't released much information about Ms. Carlos -- just that she was detained and she committed suicide in prison. York County Prison, citing its contract to house ICE detainees, a vital source of revenue for the prison, has also been mostly mum, except for a few sketchy comments by Warden Mary Sabol at a prison board meeting on Nov. 12.

There might be a reason for that -- mostly, we can surmise, that the prison and ICE fear that they will be accused of being negligent in Ms. Carlos' suicide and be vulnerable to litigation.

At that prison board meeting, Warden Sabol said Ms. Carlos was not on suicide watch. The warden mentioned that Ms. Carlos had been on suicide watch "at one time," but did not elaborate or mention her previous suicide attempt. She said Ms. Carlos "did not meet the criteria," explaining neither what the criteria is nor how Ms. Carlos' circumstances fell short of it.

The warden said the county does adhere to ICE standards in such cases, but she also described the standards, requiring the prison to watch suicidal detainees 24 hours a day, as excessive. The county follows the standards set by ICE in 2008 -- probably because of when its contract was approved. But since then, ICE has relaxed its regulations and the county wants to follow those less stringent standards, which seems odd considering the prison just had a detainee successfully commit suicide on its watch.

ICE has been even more tight-lipped with information. The agency did confirm that Ms. Carlos attempted suicide in August and that it was reviewing the circumstances that led up to her suicide, but that was about it. The agency didn't say whether she was on suicide watch, or whether she was receiving treatment for her mental illness, or, well, anything about Ms. Carlos and the events that led to the end of her life.

It's not surprising. ICE is notoriously difficult to pry information from, its processes and rationale for them cloaked in secrecy. Lawyers and other advocates for detainees often have major difficulties in getting even the most basic information from the agency.

And that's a frightening thing, considering the massive power ICE wields. The agency essentially has the power to detain people indefinitely for what seem to be arbitrary reasons. That detention can be lengthy as legal proceedings drag on.

Remember the Chinese detainees of the Golden Venture? Many of them were locked up for years, released only after public pressure. Even now, 20 years after the Golden Venture ran aground off the coast of Rockaway Beach, N.Y., the immigration status of 53 of the 154 men detained in York County remains in limbo.

And then there is the case of Dave Pierre, an Antiguan national who came here as a child and was detained for nearly three years before being released three days after Ms. Carlos' suicide.

He was told he was free to go -- as long as he reported to immigration officials -- and that was that. There had been no change in his status -- his deportation order remains under appeal. There was no explanation. Even Mr. Pierre is unsure why he was released.

And ICE isn't explaining either.

This suggests a system that is broken, operating apparently with little rhyme or reason. Or at least none that is apparent from outside its own apparatus.

It has to be fixed.

At the very least, the questions surrounding Ms. Carlos' suicide need to be answered. Justice demands it.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story